The words, FIR has not been directly dealt with in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (hereinafter referred to as CrPC), statutory provisions for which has been given u/s 154 of Crpc, 1973. An aggrieved person can or any other person on behalf of aggrieved person can lodge an FIR.

OBJECT

• The principal object behind FIR is to set the criminal law in motion and to obtain information about the alleged crime so as to be able to take suitable steps and bring the guilty to the court.
• The FIR is the first version of the incident as received by the police an FIR must be promptly lodged after the commission of a crime, this squares out the possibility of embellishment and of false implication of the accusation to the barest minimum.
• FIR gives information regarding the commission of a cognizable crime
• Any information relating to the commission of a cognizable offence is required to be reduced into writing by the SHO (officer in charge of police station) or anyone empowered in behalf of the SHO and subsequently signed by the person giving the information and its substance thereof to be registered in a register kept by the police (as prescribed by the State Government) along with providing a copy free of cost to the complainant.
• It is not required that minute details be recorded or names of all the witnesses be lodged into the FIR.
• Also, it has been held that it is not a substantive piece of evidence. (Supreme Court in Dharmendra Singh V. State of U.P. has held that FIR is not supposed to be an encyclopedia of events).

CONDONATION OF DELAY

It is considered that although prompt lodging of an FIR lends assurance however, every delay is not fatal particularly in cases of rape, where hesitation is shown by the prosecutrix and her family members because of the involvement of honour of the family. (Om prakash V. State of Haryana), Supreme Court held that in a gang rape where the young girl underwent trauma and is likely to be reluctant in describing those events to anybody including her family members can be considered as a reasonable explanation for the delay in lodging the FIR.

MANDATORY TO LODGE AN FIR

Section 154 is mandatory in nature, meaning thereby that police shall register an FIR and cannot refuse to do so on grounds of it being frivolous or vexatious in nature. The concerned officer is duty bound to register an FIR on information disclosing the commission of a cognizable offence.

Section 166A has been inserted under IPC, 1860, which clearly makes it mandatory for the police officer to record information relating to certain offences as prescribed and carrying with it punishment to police officer who fails to act accordingly. This section has been pasted as below:

Whoever, being a public servant—

knowingly disobeys any direction of the law which prohibits him from requiring the attendance at any place of any person for the purpose of investigation into an offence or any other, or

knowingly disobeys, to the prejudice of any person, any other direction of the law regulating the manner in which he shall conduct such investigation, or

fails to record1 any information given to him under sub-section (1) of section 154 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, in relation to cognizable offence punishable under section 326A, section 326B, section 354, section 354B, section 370, section 370A, section 376, section 376A, section 376AB, section 376B, section 376C, section 376D, section 376DA, section 376DB, section 376E or section 509,

shall be punished with rigorous imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than six months but which may extend to two years, and shall also be liable to fine.

ZERO FIR: The concept of zero FIR involves lodging an FIR to a police station not having territorial jurisdiction. A major difference between normal FIR and zero FIR is that the former is first numbered and filed and in the latter case it is registered but not numbered and is forwarded to the concerned police station.

Can a writ be issued directing to file an FIR?

It has been held by the Supreme Court that a writ petition is not to be entertained for non-registration of an FIR. On non-registration of FIR appropriate remedy lies with Superintendent of Police u/s. 154(3) by an application in writing or he can file an application before the Magistrate u/s. 156(3). (Sakiri Vasu V. State of UP).